"This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:34)."There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Matthew 16:28)."Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come" (Matthew 10:23).

In the face of the difficulty of having to explain just why Jesus did not return within his own generation, Christians try to reinterpret these passages, deferring to some future "coming" that they've been waiting around to see for 2,000 years.

Logged

"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence" (Christopher Hitchens).

It's one of the weirdest things about the delusion. It simply does not allow them to think that it's all wrong. They must find a way to explain how it should be interpreted, as opposed to asking the much simpler question, namely, what if these idiots were wrong about what they wrote down?

GH, others have seen it but I've done a bit of calculation on just how long it could be until JC returns (assuming he existed in the first place, of course)A day for god is equal to a thousand years – 2 Peter 3:8-9A generation is about 30 years which would equal 10,950 days.

10,950 x 1000 years = 10,950,000 years

You can also run this with the creationist claims that a "day" is various amounts, a million years, a billion years etc.

they have a looooong time to wait.

Logged

"There is no use in arguing with a man who can multiply anything by the square root of minus 1" - Pirates of Venus, ERB

I've done a good amount of research on this, and I know you won't believe me, but if God is real, I'm pretty sure he will come back in this lifetime, that is within the next 60 years. Now we just have to wait and see.

I've done a good amount of research on this, and I know you won't believe me, but if God is real, I'm pretty sure he will come back in this lifetime, that is within the next 60 years. Now we just have to wait and see.

Are you aware that we can find equivalent believers claiming virtually the same thing in every decade and century before you just uttered it?

What could you have possibly 'researched'?

Logged

"Religious faith is the antithesis to knowledge, it is the opposition to education, and it has to act in animosity against the free exchange of ideas. Why? Because those things are what cause harm to a religions place in society most." - Me

I've done a good amount of research on this, and I know you won't believe me, but if God is real, I'm pretty sure he will come back in this lifetime, that is within the next 60 years. Now we just have to wait and see.

many Christians have made the same claims and no one has been right yet. I have no reason to think your "good amount of research" has any more chance of being right. Each Christian who thinks he has the "right" answer has his own little magic decoder ring to tell him when this god will "really" reaturn.

Now, assuming you'll be alive after 60 years has passed (unlikely for me since I'm 45), what will you do when you've found out you are wrong? Redo your "calculations" like Harold Camping and push it off for another few years? Or admit that you were wrong and were just guessing, hopeing that your imaginary friend was real?

Logged

"There is no use in arguing with a man who can multiply anything by the square root of minus 1" - Pirates of Venus, ERB

I've done a good amount of research on this, and I know you won't believe me, but if God is real, I'm pretty sure he will come back in this lifetime, that is within the next 60 years. Now we just have to wait and see.

So... when it's 61 years from now, will you say "nope, god ain't coming back", or will you say "it'll be within 60 years from now, I'm sure of it!"?

What "research" did you did, and how was it different than what Herold Camping did?

I've done a good amount of research on this, and I know you won't believe me, but if God is real, I'm pretty sure he will come back in this lifetime, that is within the next 60 years. Now we just have to wait and see.

Wow, what amazing insight. 2000 years and countless predictions that have failed but now we have the right one before us. You must be one of God's special people.

GH, others have seen it but I've done a bit of calculation on just how long it could be until JC returns (assuming he existed in the first place, of course)A day for god is equal to a thousand years – 2 Peter 3:8-9A generation is about 30 years which would equal 10,950 days.

10,950 x 1000 years = 10,950,000 years

You can also run this with the creationist claims that a "day" is various amounts, a million years, a billion years etc.

they have a looooong time to wait.

I never though of it that way! LOL!

Logged

"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence" (Christopher Hitchens).

I've done a good amount of research on this, and I know you won't believe me, but if God is real, I'm pretty sure he will come back in this lifetime, that is within the next 60 years. Now we just have to wait and see.

If you don't cite your research sources, you are just preaching. How about showing us how you arrive at this conclusion?

If we can expect to see a conquering savior "split the eastern sky" within our lifetime, then, pray tell, what did Jesus mean when he said that some of his disciples would not taste death until they see him coming in his kingdom? Are some of them still alive and kicking?!

Logged

"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence" (Christopher Hitchens).

Well thats why I said you wouldn't believe me, but I don't mean exactly 60 years. I just needed to say a number to you meaning in my lifetime. I am 19, so i don't know how long I will live but I think he will be back in my lifetime. And I'm not setting a date. The research I've done is so much that I did not want to write it all here. Most of you would probably not read it all but until i prepare a full expository on it I will just ask did anyone read The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White or perhaps The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey? These two books place a stark contrast to each other and Hal Lindsey was wrong, because he predicted the world would end in the 80s and it didn't. Ellen White however did not state a day or even say in my lifetime. However she shows how events connect and how prophecies in the Bible have been fulfilled and soon it is time for the rest to be fulfilled. Of course she uses the Bible as irrefutable and complete and infallible. So if you believe in the Bible this is an interesting book.

You do realize that much of Christian rapture nonsense is not even biblical, right?

Logged

"Religious faith is the antithesis to knowledge, it is the opposition to education, and it has to act in animosity against the free exchange of ideas. Why? Because those things are what cause harm to a religions place in society most." - Me

The first batch of folks who believed he would return were apparently told it would happen in their lifetime. Almost 2,000 years ago.I've no doubt that there will still be christians 20,000 years from now waiting for him with the same baited breath. For whatever reason, they don't seem to be able to take a hint.

Every christian who expects the return of jc is sure it will happen in their lifetime. My guess is that each one is hoping to avoid the middle man (actual death) and go straight to heaven without passing go. Or stop.

I'm happy to wish them good luck with that, but my pull with non-existent deities is no better than theirs.

Well thats why I said you wouldn't believe me, but I don't mean exactly 60 years. I just needed to say a number to you meaning in my lifetime. I am 19, so i don't know how long I will live but I think he will be back in my lifetime. And I'm not setting a date. The research I've done is so much that I did not want to write it all here. Most of you would probably not read it all but until i prepare a full expository on it I will just ask did anyone read The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White or perhaps The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey? These two books place a stark contrast to each other and Hal Lindsey was wrong, because he predicted the world would end in the 80s and it didn't. Ellen White however did not state a day or even say in my lifetime. However she shows how events connect and how prophecies in the Bible have been fulfilled and soon it is time for the rest to be fulfilled. Of course she uses the Bible as irrefutable and complete and infallible. So if you believe in the Bible this is an interesting book.

Way ahead of you, kiddo.

As a card-carrying member of the Jehovah's Witness Protection Program, I grew up hearing about the end of the world, Armageddon and how the stuff in the book of Revelations was happening right now!11111!!! any minute! Emergency alert! Wars and famines and stuff! Goats with horns! Puppies with kittens! Flee for your lives!

That was back in the 1960's-70's. The world was really, really gonna end in 1974. It didn't.

Amazingly enough, the JW's gained even more members by being spectacularly wrong. Any publicity is good publicity, as Madonna said. By the time I was your age, I had figured out it was all a bunch of bullsh!t. Revelations was written by people on some primitive form of LSD. Nothing to do with reality. Get another hobby. Relax.

Logged

When all of Cinderella's finery changed back at midnight, why didn't the shoes disappear? What's up with that?

Well thats why I said you wouldn't believe me, but I don't mean exactly 60 years. I just needed to say a number to you meaning in my lifetime. I am 19, so i don't know how long I will live but I think he will be back in my lifetime. And I'm not setting a date. The research I've done is so much that I did not want to write it all here. Most of you would probably not read it all but until i prepare a full expository on it I will just ask did anyone read The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White or perhaps The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey? These two books place a stark contrast to each other and Hal Lindsey was wrong, because he predicted the world would end in the 80s and it didn't. Ellen White however did not state a day or even say in my lifetime. However she shows how events connect and how prophecies in the Bible have been fulfilled and soon it is time for the rest to be fulfilled. Of course she uses the Bible as irrefutable and complete and infallible. So if you believe in the Bible this is an interesting book.

Way ahead of you, kiddo.

As a card-carrying member of the Jehovah's Witness Protection Program, I grew up hearing about the end of the world, Armageddon and how the stuff in the book of Revelations was happening right now!11111!!! any minute! Emergency alert! Wars and famines and stuff! Goats with horns! Puppies with kittens! Flee for your lives!

That was back in the 1960's-70's. The world was really, really gonna end in 1974. It didn't.

Amazingly enough, the JW's gained even more members by being spectacularly wrong. Any publicity is good publicity, as Madonna said. By the time I was your age, I had figured out it was all a bunch of bullsh!t. Revelations was written by people on some primitive form of LSD. Nothing to do with reality. Get another hobby. Relax.

I don't agree with Jehovah's Witnesses and as a already said, I did not say the world WILL END in my lifetime, I said I BELIEVE it will. I think (meaning I have no proof other then the fact that Jesus said when you see all these things know that the time is near). I see alot of stuff and I think it is near. If the world does not end in my lifetime, so be it. I'm fully prepared to die.

The first batch of folks who believed he would return were apparently told it would happen in their lifetime. Almost 2,000 years ago.I've no doubt that there will still be christians 20,000 years from now waiting for him with the same baited breath. For whatever reason, they don't seem to be able to take a hint.

Every christian who expects the return of jc is sure it will happen in their lifetime. My guess is that each one is hoping to avoid the middle man (actual death) and go straight to heaven without passing go. Or stop.

I'm happy to wish them good luck with that, but my pull with non-existent deities is no better than theirs.

Maybe you are referring to Matthew 16:19 which Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." They did die but they DID see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom just as Jesus said they would. There are two fulfillments of that. The first would be that John in Revelation was there when Jesus said that and he saw in the visions God gave him the Son of Man (Jesus) coming in his kingdom. Second fulfillment is What immediately followed this verse, the transfiguration. And you cannot say that they believed Jesus would come in their day because Paul in his various letters admonishes the church to not look for Christ in their day for it was not going to happen until later. Also one of the Reformers during the reformation said also that it would not happen in his day.

You do realize that much of Christian rapture nonsense is not even biblical, right?

I know what is Biblical and you are correct. The idea of the Christians being taken up before this 7 year tribulation is completely wrong and not biblical. The only rapture is when Jesus comes the second time. Then that is the end. Life does not go on. 2 Peter 3:10 says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar: the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up."

You say what research, im talking about that I don't just read the Bible like every other book I study it and I hear what people think certain passages mean and I check if the Bible corresponds to what they say. I don't have to do that for most of the Bible because It is very clear however some verses are difficult to understand.

I think to be Pope you first would have to be probably pretty high up in the Catholic church and I don't think the Pope would appreciate you eating Jesus. Nice try though.

But...per the catholic doctrine surrounding the eucharist and communion as with its mythology, I would virtually become Jesus if I ate him as such. I mean, if magically transubstantiating wafers and wine are said to become body and blood, would I not be cranking it up to max if Jesus came back and I ate him?

Would I or would I not, per the catholic doctrine, virtually become Jesus?

Seriously, this IS an important question! If he comes back (assuming he was ever here in such role in the first place), I think we all need to figure out whether or not we should be gearing up to eat him forthwith. Never too soon prepared, eh?

Logged

"I don't respect your religious beliefs and I don't care if this offends you." - Pat Condel and myself along with him. I do respect intelligence, rationality and logical consideration, however. Humor's always good too.

Never. Before, during and after every war on this planet in the last, let's say 500 years or so some group or person has declared, Jesus will return in his or hers life time. For crying out loud get over it, he's not coming. In order for superman to show up, first he's got to exist. The bible exists therefor Jesus must have?

Lets say you lived during the time of Jesus and lived within a few hundred miles of his birth place and place of death. He would have been like a rock star? Am I right or what?How come no one wrote about him outside the bible like maybe the local news paper? you know like the Judaea times perhaps

But there was such a person who was alive during Jesus time and he never wrote down one word about him. He wrote about the world around him and left behind evidence.

As it happens, we have an excellent witness to events in Judaea and the Jewish diaspora in the first half of the first century AD: Philo of Alexandria (c25 BC-47 AD).

Philo was also in the right place to give testimony of a messianic contender. A Jewish aristocrat and leader of the large Jewish community of Alexandria, we know that Philo spent time in Jerusalem (On Providence) where he had intimate connections with the royal house of Judaea.

Jesus the carpenter never even left behind a cabinet or the cross he was hung on or a record of birth or death. So WTF? Do you not "think" that's a little strange jakec47, that a person such as Jesus of the bible cannot be corroborated?

We know dinosaurs existed their bones are littered all over the planet.

Logged

The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow, you are not understanding yourself. Truth has no path. Truth is living and therefore changing. Bruce lee